Chuffa or Chufa

(Cyperus esculentus) This plant is also called Ground Almond or Earth Chestnut. The nutty, sweet tasting, small tubers are quite delicious and produced underground on perennial, grass-like plants. An important food crop in Asia Minor and Egypt since ancient times. This delicacy has been grown for thousands of years; only now is it starting to get popular in America.

Very easy to grow in zones 8-9 (during the same time you grow corn) and have a wonderful taste that I liken to a cross between coconut and almonds. They were a little bit invasive in my garden - you can't harvest every tuber so those will come back. I never saw them go to seed so its not going to be spread by birds. I would definitely try to find a way to grow these in a very large container or in a dedicated spot in the yard that has edging all around so that it can't go beyond those borders.

My understanding is that tiger nuts are not the same as yellow nut sedge but they are often confused with yellow nutsedge. yellow nutsedge is very invasive, chufa is less invasive and also has larger better tasting tubers. the little tubers taste really sweet and nutty and can be used to make the type of horchata made in spain which is very tasty. I grow mine in large planters to help prevent them from getting out of control. they are very easy to grow and soon i will get to harvest them for the first time. I recomend them but it may be a good idea to grow them in a planter and to be careful with them. if you live someplace with a longer colder winter they may not be invasive at all.

Sweet, nutty taste. Great snack. Very prolific. Each tuber will multiply itself by 100. Easy to grow and requires no attention (I planted in spring and forgot about them until fall.) Difficult to harvest. No matter how hard you sift through the dirt you always leave dozens behind. They can be grown in pots. I would recommend cleaning the tubers in a bucket of water with small gravel, stirring, rinsing, repeat, similar to cleaning walnuts. Chufa can be invasive but will be killed by northern temperatures. Often planted as a food crop for deer and turkey.